Portland and beyond!

Tag Archives: Wildfire

A section of the Old Highway was opened not long ago and two trails as well, Latourell Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. We decided to go check the area out a few weeks ago.

We started by doing the full Latourell Falls Loop and we were pleasantly surprise. There wasn’t any fire damage to the trail and the waterfall itself was looking great. They have done some improvements to the trail down at the lower section of the waterfall. The paved section is much better and more evenly graded making for easy universal access.

Next we kept driving and stopped at Sheppard’s Dell Falls. The trail is closed and with good reason. This area got burned pretty good and there are definite changes you can see. There are a lot of burned trees and rocks that have fallen. Trees have also been removed in this area making it to where you can see a lot more of the top tiers of this waterfall.

Continuing down the Gorge towards Bridal Veil you will notice a lot of burned trees along the road and scorched basalt, many trees have been removed and rocks have definitely fallen. We didn’t have time to check out the Bridal Veil trail but we plan to do so soon.

The Old Highway continues to have patches of burned areas as you reach the Angels Rest Trailhead and this is where you have to stop, as the rest of the Old Highway is closed. We’ve seen pictures of the Angels Rest trail and it was burned pretty bad.

You can visit the Multnomah Falls lodge but can only get there by parking in the lot on I-84 and walking up to it. There is fencing blocking off Multnomah Falls at the lodge so views are minimal.

As more sections of the Gorge open we will check them out and continue to update the site on what trails are open. Stay tuned.